Timothy Hollingsworth of the French Laundry discusses Bocuse d’Or, culinary awareness, and balancing modern and classic

This past weekend, the Chronicle took an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the extensive Bocuse d’Or training that took place at the French Laundry in late September. There, Thomas Keller and his crew hosted the Bocuse Team USA contingent: chef Richard Rosendale, his commis Corey Siegel and two coaches (and newly Michelin-starred chefs in New York), Gavin Kaysen of Cafe Boulud and Gabriel Kreuther of The Modern; the third coach, Grant Achatz, was a little busy in New York at the time.

Rosendale and Team USA worked with French Laundry gardener Tucker Taylor to plot their platter from the produce side. They worked with the restaurant’s Devin Knell to brainstorm possibilities with the French Laundry’s centrifuge machine and its freeze-dryer. At the end of the week, Rosendale and Siegel whipped up a tasting.

According to Kaysen, one of the most important at the tasting was French Laundry chef de cuisine Timothy Hollingsworth, who competed in the Bocuse d’Or in 2009. He placed sixth, the best an American has ever done (Note: His experience — and much more about the competition — is chronicled in the excellent Knives at Dawn by Andrew Friedman).

Here’s a portion of our chat about the Bocuse d’Or competition, modern cooking and much much more:

PL: To someone who’s never seen it, let alone competed in it, how would you describe the Bocuse d’Or competition?

TH: It’s like a football game or a basketball game, but the championship. Americans don’t have an association for it, because we don’t really have anything close to it. It’s a competition that brings together 24 different countries. You think about the Olympics, but in the moment, it seems like there’s even more hype because of the noise level. I think that it’s an amazing competition to have been a part of, and still be a part of.

You competed in 2009. Why stay involved?

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Bocuse House, next door to the French Laundry. Photo: Craig Lee/The Chronicle

The more we get involved in America, the more people we get knowledgeable about food and sustainability. If we can get support all across America, hopefully we can change the way people are eating. I hope that really it brings awareness.

If you think of the culinary world, and people’s base knowledge — outside of San Francisco and New York and major cities — really there’s not a lot of knowledge about the culinary scene. In America, there’s still a lot more frozen food than fresh produce in most grocery stores.

How has the competition affected you?

When I first started training for the competition, it was a big deal for me. I grew up doing blue collar work, working construction with my father. He didn’t disapprove of me going to the kitchen, but he thought what he did was more of a better lifestyle than what I chose to do.

It was really when he came over here, to the Bocuse House, and I did full practice session that he saw the craftsmanship in it. He saw that it wasn’t like going to Sizzler and Outback — it was really cooking. From then on, my whole family’s been into what I do. That was a very, very key point in my life.

The same way that it took my dad seeing what I did, is the same thing that we’re trying to get America to see what we’re doing.

The Bocuse House has become the de facto headquarters for Team USA. What’s it like to host Richard and the rest of the Bocuse here?

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The Bocuse squad: Commis Corey Siegel on the left, coach Gavin Kaysen in white and Richard Rosendale on the far right.

It’s a special place. It was Thomas’ father’s house, so it means a lot to him. It’s a place where people can come out, no matter where they’re from. You have people from all over the country who can come to this centralized location.

It’s also about product, it’s about produce. It’s crazy because this [gesturing toward the garden] is normal to us. If you’re James [Kent of Eleven Madison Park, the 2011 U.S. representative] and you live in New York, you don’t have access to this. It’s also about coming out here, relax your mind and come out and get the opinions of talented chefs in the area.

Looking back on your Bocuse experience, what did you learn?

I learned a lot about culture, chefs and the support of the culinary world — just being able to talk to Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges and this amazing group of chefs that were able to pick apart your food. You get the older opinions and the newer opinions. You have someone like Grant [Achatz] who is modern, and someone like Gabriel [Kreuther] who is a little more classic. It balances out.

How do you balance that line between modern and classic? I’m guessing you encounter that challenge every day in the French Laundry kitchen.

There are certain techniques that we want to try and that’s great. But it’s about respecting the product. Ultimately if I want to a fluid gel of something, I might taste it and say you know what, the base product tastes way better than this gel, so I’m not going to do this. It’s losing the impact.

Having tried out different things, you start to understand the impact of what will happen when you do it. It’s all about flavor versus technique and the wow factor. You have to learn how to wow someone based on cooking normal food.

What’s your advice for Richard and other future competitors?

The number one thing is you need to see the competition. You need to go and experience what it is. I had guys come and tell me what it is, but then you have all these opinions, so you’re basing it on others’ view. If you’re going to create something on your own, you need to see it first.

That’s why a lot of the other countries have the support system and the people who have done it in the past really helping out with the younger ones doing it today. That’s really what we’re starting to do.

Yeah, it seems like the Bocuse Foundation is fostering a farm system of sorts. And it’s probably fair to say that after a string of chefs from fine dining restaurants — Gavin, you, and James — that Richard is a slightly different breed, right?

Richard’s extremely talented and organized. He’s a competition chef. He’s way better at that kind of stuff than me; I’m more of a restaurant chef, off the cuff.

Explain the difference between a competition chef and restaurant chef.

A competition chef is somebody that is able to focus on one dish and make it over and over again and perfect it, and then be able to replicate it. And certainly at a restaurant like the French Laundry, where we change our menu every single day, we’re used to making up new recipes, so that it’s not necessarily how I think.

We have recipes that we follow, but barely … it’s just cooking. But to be able to be very consistent and make sure nothing goes wrong — what Richard has — is very, very important. So when you’re talking about how much time and money and commitment other people have put into it, it’s important you have someone like Richard who is going to be very regimented.

What’s it like for a chef to puts in years into creating these Bocuse d’Or dishes,only to be judged on them in a matter of minutes. And it’s not a blind tasting, either. What was the judging process like for you?

There are a lot of politics. All I thought is that it was really hard; I was just thinking about the preparation. This person is going to take two bites of food. They’re going to glance at the platter and glance at the plate.You have to think about who your judges are. you have people from 20 different countries. You want to represent the food in your country, but you have to understand that it has to appeal to everyone. I don’t think Japan will ever win, and that’s not to say Japan’s platter isn’t the best — it just may not appeal to 24 different countries.

So how do you showcase American cuisine, knowing that Judge X may not understand say, barbecue sauce?

The amazing thing about America is you say, “What is American cuisine?” American cuisine is everything. That’s where we can get off on it a little bit.